January 2015

From the interest-bearing clay tablet loans traded in ancient Mesopotamia to the corporate bonds issued by the 17th century Dutch East India Company, historians have long struggled to pin down the world’s first stock exchange.…

The Malawian government is facing down pressure from civil society to ban the sale of cheap and potent sachets of liquor, which campaigners believe is contributing to problems in health and education, reports Lameck Masina.…

The Ghanaian Finance Ministry has released a new raft of potentially unpopular tax measures aimed at boosting government revenues and reining in an unsustainable twin current account and fiscal deficit.…

Indonesia’s ban on the export of raw bauxite, used to make aluminium, and the auto industry opting to use the metal instead of steel is very good news for African producers such as Guinea, Ghana and Sierra Leone as the global price of aluminium continues to break records.…